Halo Versus Star Wars: Opening Salvo
by Exterminatus Extremis
Summary: It has been three weeks since the events of Genesis. Reach Station is nearly repaired. The Sangheili are considering whether or not to help the humans in their new fight. On the other side of the Rift, new alliances form...
1. Part I: The Clans Gather

Halo Versus Star Wars

**OPENING SALVO**

_**Part I**_

_**The Clans Gather**_

Three weeks was a long time for them to wait for the Sangheili Fleetmaster Zectoy to arrive and make his report. He was in charge of the small fleet at Reach, or at least the military vessels. There were several dozen civilian ships as well, working with the Humans to rebuild their world and construct that station. He himself detested the attempt; it seemed a hideous waste of their time and resources, and an even greater waste of that of the Elites.

Sure, the Covenant, and by extension the Elites, had burned that world and many others. But it was war, and his proud race owed the Humans nothing. In fact, the Humans owed them! The Sangheili had turned from the false Prophets, risked extinction, and joined humanity during the Covenant War. Were it not for that timely defection, humanity wouldn't be around to make such demands. That they did so anyway spoke volumes about their integrity and the lack thereof.

No, in his humble opinion, they shouldn't be devoting time and effort to the Humans who had treated the Elites with such disdain after the war. Residual fear drove many to hate the Elites for what they'd done. Directly following the war, when the Arbiter asked that they help the Human race to reclaim at least some of their lost wealth, he was met with open opposition as well as agreement. Some of them actually felt bad for humanity, but not that they had destroyed so much; they were sorry to see the comparatively primitive race floundering around the dirt like some deranged beast. Humanity's outlook on things was that the Elites needed to make up for the atrocities committed during the war. Similarly, some Humans were opposed to letting the "aliens" anywhere near their worlds again, even if their intent was to help. They'd joined together for a brief time to fight off the mutual greater threat, but when that was gone, their differences and history were too great, despite the intentions and aid of several hundred support groups.

The first attempt at a joint-controlled Human/Elite colony ended in disaster.

When the Office of Naval Intelligence began to work on their Flood projects, many Elites decided enough was enough and demanded that the current Arbiter leave them to their own demise. The Arbiter knew that would have been a spectacularly bad idea, however, since it was possible that the Flood would escape on Slipspace-capable ships and make their way into Elite territory without them having a clue until it was too late. Instead, he demanded they cease their projects. The reply was a polite "screw you." He let the issue drop, publicly, but behind the scenes he had several fleets ready to deploy at a moments notice to destroy any renegade projects reported by his contacts in the UNSC and ONI. Namely, Admiral Sheppard.

Reach was working out for two reasons: the Human half of it was run almost entirely by the UNSC and the Elites wanted to keep a close eye on ONI.

Zectoy waited outside a great set of purple and golden doors, beyond which was the Council Chamber of Sangheilios. A retinue of Honor Guard stood at the ostentatious portal, barring entry until whatever was going on finished. It did, eventually. The Grunt Ambassadors came waddling out of the room in their ridiculous-looking ceremonial robes and Methane rebreathers. Zectoy shook his head and entered as he was bade.

"Welcome, Fleetmaster." the Arbiter said. He was an older Elite, his hide turning to gray, though still whipcord-like beneath. "What news from Reach? I've been hearing some...interesting...stories about happenings at the Human world."

"I'm afraid they're mostly true, Arbiter. The other Humans, from that other galaxy, they've attacked and damaged Reach Station. Several Human vessels were destroyed as well. You're going to love the cause."

**~~O~~**

Sheppard sat again at his desk, reading reports from the gathering fleet of the UNSC. Reach Station became a powerhouse almost overnight after the attack. Once Admiral Huntz had put out the message to assemble the Navy, ships began pouring into the system. The events of three weeks ago were kept quiet, confined to those within the system and the UNSC brass. Even among those, the exact cause of the attack was kept to just a select few; Sheppard, Xiong, Huntz, Leditzky, and a few other Admirals and the civilian government heads were the only ones who really knew. That and, of course, the rest of Section III.

They'd celebrated Xiong for ordering the counterattack. It was "to keep up appearances," he was told. Since not many knew why the Ambassador's escort had attacked the station, to them it was seen as a reasonable measure. Sheppard had not attended the toast.

ONI continued to dictate much of what went on in the system, including the flow of information. The Rift, as Section IV, the science division, called it, was guarded by two fleets. One was under Sheppard's command, and the other was Xiong's. Eighty ships all told, plus a downsized Orbital MAC station, the _Theo. _He knew it wouldn't be nearly enough, but he couldn't do anything about it. With ONI in control, his command was diluted. They knew he was a direct opposition to most of their designs. He huffed. They'd left him out of the loop. He had to rely on his network of people within the command structure for information now.

He owed his career to Leditzky. The brass was going to court-martial him for striking an officer, but the ONI man had stepped in to clear it.

The reports scrolling across the holographic display in his desk were standard; this fleet arrived at this time from this location. There were a few interesting names and ships, but nothing out of the ordinary. Someone had the brains to send a request for aid to the Elites. It had gone unanswered so far. The Sangheili fleet that was at Reach when the attack began had proven spectacularly useless, likely disabled by the same EMP that had fried most of the system. They'd left as soon as the fight was over, back to Sangheilios. It was no small amusement to Sheppard to imagine what the Arbiter's reaction would be to the news about the Flood-controlled vessel from ONI.

Closing the report, Sheppard glanced at the clock in the corner of the display. It was time. He brought up a special command sequence and attached his electronic insignia to it. A simple message, recorded and repeated. He sent the data packet along a Slipspace band to the _Argonaut _at the Rift. Tesla would know what to do about it.

He reopened the reports and waited. It wouldn't be long. It wasn't.

Sheppard grinned as the door opened and Xiong again walked into his office.

**~~O~~**

"So. The humans have reaped the consequences of their folly yet again. Only this time, we will all pay the price for it. Yet again, they ask our help to clean up their messes." The Arbiter growled briefly in agreement at the Councilor's words.

"If I may offer my opinion, I do not believe we should-" The Arbiter cut Zectoy off.

"You may not. When I promised them our aid in rebuilding their worlds, I said nothing of granting them help in military assets. I understand that the Council is opposed three to one to sending our ships to help in the event that they are attacked again." He paused. "However, given Zectoy's report of the enemy's power, I think it is prudent that we do combine our fleets with theirs." Raised voices and arguments answered his statement. He sighed. How like the Council. "Listen to me! The enemy is strong, and according to the humans they have an entire galaxy at their disposal. The humans cannot weather this storm, and neither can we. Neither of us is strong enough."

"Then we should join the 'enemy' and finish what was started during the War!" One of the Council shouted. "Too long have the humans suckled away at our resources and given nothing in return. And now they bring his war upon us and expect us to rush to their aid? I say we rid ourselves of them completely!"

"And what would that say of our people?" The Arbiter responded. "When the enemy breaks the human resistance, what then? Do we allow a fellow sentient race to perish? Put yourselves in the human's skin. Think for but a moment what you would do if we were in their position."

"We wouldn't be in their position! No Sangheili would be foolish enough to toy with the Flood as they did. This is their own fault," another Councilor said. The Arbiter leaned to the side briefly, listening to something. He tapped a few keys on his throne and brought up a display. Time for the trump card.

"Be that as it may, the enemy is powerful. See this report I received just now, and witness for yourself."

It was the fleet sent to destroy the ONI vessel carrying the Flood. Onboard was a man who called himself the Operative. He had arrived at Sangheilios, demanded an audience with the Arbiter and the Council, and told them of the continued Flood project.

On the screen, the ships began to explode, detonating from within.

"The Operative was a traitor, likely sent by the enemy. He tricked us into weakening the human fleet enough for the Flood vessel to escape and go to Reach Station uncontrolled. Then, he disappeared through the Rift." Blatant lies. They had no idea what had happened at Jericho, but the lack of knowledge was also a convenient excuse to make up a story. The Council dissolved into arguments and exclamations of outrage. The Arbiter amplified his voice into the Chamber's sound systems.

"Silence! There will be order in this Council!"

"Why were we not told of this before?" One shouted.

"I was just informed myself. They recovered the escape pods from the planet below the battle but a short while ago. The survivors gave the recovery team this recording and asked that it be sent directly to me." He stood. "Council, the enemy planned this from the beginning. Due to their manipulations, we are the ones partially responsible for what has happened. This is now a matter of our dignity. We won't clean up the humans' folly for them, I agree. But will we clean up our own?" He waited. There were murmurs, disagreement, but eventually the conclusion was reached that yes, they'd been played, and yes, they had to help. It was vengeance, in a way, for the manipulations of the Operative.

As they filed out, Zectoy stood before him.

"You planned this," Zectoy said. It was not a question.

"Yes, I did. We received that recording shortly after the incident at Jericho. Truthfully, we have no idea what happened there. But the Council does not know this. I figured that if they did not agree to aid the humans, then I would show them this and tell them a story to twist events to cast the correct light upon this."

"Why?"

"Most of what I said was true. Alone, neither of our races can survive this. I do not want to be responsible by proxy for the genocide of a race. Enough questions, Fleetmaster. Return to your ship and take your fleet to secure the Rift. I will send reinforcements once they are assembled, but for now, the humans need a gesture of good will."

"What could we possibly gain from this, Arbiter?"

"Ah, the important question. We gain nothing save whatever spoils come of this war, should it escalate to that stage. Imagine, the technology and weapons of the enemy at our disposal. We'd be unstoppable. The Brutes would be brought to heel easily." The Arbiter stood to leave the chamber himself.

"One last thing, honored Arbiter," Zectoy said, his voice dripping sarcasm. "What makes you think we will survive this, even with the humans' help? You said it yourself, the enemy has an entire galaxy at their disposal."

"Strike hard enough and fast enough, and any enemy force will think you greater than you are. You are dismissed, Fleetmaster."

**~~O~~**

"So you really think it will work?" Xiong asked him. They sat in his office, conversing civilly. At first Xiong had been irate, demanding who he'd sent the message to and what it said. He'd calmed down significantly once Sheppard explained his plan.

"It has to. If it doesn't, we're all going to die anyway. But I know it will. He told me, at this time on this date, call for me."

"What can one man do against a galaxy?"

"Well," Sheppard said, "That I don't know. But he destroyed whole platoons of Stormtroopers on his own. I imagine whatever ship or ships he brings will be powerful. Who knows, maybe he has a fleet at his disposal. Given the level of technology in his armor alone, I wouldn't put it past him to have basic weapon systems capable of destroying planets, and I'd hate to see what he would consider a weapon of mass destruction." Sheppard hadn't mentioned the other oddity about the man in question. A Blank, he called himself.

"And this was your fallback in case this exact thing happened." Xiong breathed out. "Why not tell us about this before?"

"Would it have made a difference? Besides, it would have given away my mission report as a falsehood." The Admiral leaned back and grimaced. "I don't really know what to expect. I'm not even sure he's still alive after all this time. But without him, we are beyond screwed if this escalates further."

Elsewhere, the heads of the eight ONI divisions sat in a conference room.

"The Elites still haven't responded to the UNSC's cry for help. This is not unexpected; they did attack Delivery," said IV.

"I'd still like to know how they knew of the Delivery project. Sheppard is an obvious mole." Section V.

"Too obvious. He doesn't have ties to the Elites, only to his mysterious ally on the other side of the Rift." Section 0 stated.

"Then who?" V asked.

"The Operative," said Section I. "He disappeared shortly after handing the Flood specimens over to Section III." She nodded to the Research/Development representative, the only one physically present. The rest were holograms transmitted from whatever planet the department happened to be on.

"I told you we shouldn't have trusted him. I knew the instant I saw the first specimen, he was lying about several things." The representative for Section VI paused for a moment. "Where'd you dig him up, anyway?" The question was directed to the representative of Section VII, whose hologram was a shadow.

"We didn't, he came to us. The specimens he provided were precisely what we needed at the time, or so we thought. It had not occurred to us that they might evolve to the point where they would achieve psychic abilities."

"I still don't believe that was the case," said IV. "Their major abnormalities were their odd intelligence and ability to rapidly restructure their host bodies near-instantaneously. No strain before was able to do that."

"There was evidence from the records of those in closer contact with them. The first specimen to be given a host nearly escaped containment by walking through the walls. It also took not one, but two MBT's to kill. Every shot fired into it would heal. When it finally did die, a huge energy surge was detected and the specimen disappeared in black fire." VII opened a schematic over his display. It showed a Flood Combat form, then ran through a sequence of images as it changed into something more terrifying. Large, bloody claws grew out in place of its tentacles. The bones bulged, snapped, and extended to impossible degrees as the head became a snarling, golden-eyed parody of what was once its host. Though dead, the gaze radiated malice.

"Do you have any specimens left?"

"No. However, some may be recoverable." He displayed a new recording of the Mon Calamari cruiser. Several ships escaped the vessel, but were ultimately destroyed; one, however, escaped into a black and purple flare shortly after the ship exploded.

"They escaped."

"Very well," said I. "We will attempt to recover them when they reappear. There is another matter to attend to. This is a message that Sheppard has projected through the Rift." It played.

"Dangerous. Suppose it doesn't reach its intended recipient? Someone else might take advantage of this situation," said V.

"Doubtless Sheppard has considered the risk acceptable. Foolish, but likely. Section VII will watch this aspect of the situation closely. If the message is answered, be prepared to mobilize everything you have to counter it." Section I closed the meeting. The holograms flicked off, but I, III, and VII remained.

"Everything, including Project Legion?" asked III's representative.

"They're not ready yet. We must test how the enemy's Jedi will measure against their...assets."

"Reign in Xiong, Section III. On two occasions now he has come too close to revealing our objectives to Sheppard. Remind him that he owes his life and the continuation of his projects to us, and both of those can be easily removed."

_**End Part I**_

* * *

And here begins Halo Versus Star Wars: Opening Salvo. Explanations galore coming soon.

For anyone wondering, ONI in this Fanfiction is set up into seven sections denoted by Roman numerals. The first four are taken almost straight from source material, but the rest we came up with.

Section 0: Internal

Section I: Main

Section II: Public Relations

Section III: Research/Development

Section IV: Xenology

Section V: Military

Section VI: Science

Section VII: Black Ops

The functions of most of these are pretty obvious.

This chapter mainly sets up what's been going on in the three week interlude between Genesis and Opening Salvo. Up next is a similar item on the Star Wars side of things.

It has been brought to my attention that I mentioned two new projects going on at the site that I never actually talked about. We're composing/gathering a soundtrack of sorts, which currently has three songs downloadable at the Halo Versus Star Wars site or by asking me directly. The second project is a Machinima one of our members is putting together. I'm told it will loosely follow the events of Genesis.


	2. Part II: Unexpected Unity

_**Part II**_

_**Unexpected Unity**_

_ISD _Freedom _and Mon Cal. Cruiser _Never-Ending Peace _destroyed at star system designated Epsilon Eridani, above planet designated Reach. _Never-Ending Peace _lost with all hands. The sole survivor from the ISD _Freedom_ has given a brief report of what happened before going into the bacta tanks. The humans (they designated themselves "Terrans," Terra being a name for one of their worlds) attacked the _Never-Ending Peace _with some form of biological weaponry. The Ambassador was assassinated directly before or during this action, as were his escorts and the Jedi Master Roderan Tambor. The records brought back by the survivor, the apprentice of the Jedi Master Roderick Tambor, show that the enemy's weaponry, while primitive, has vast power. The Navy of the Republic has asked for a declaration of war to end the threat before it becomes more dangerous._

_-Official communique from ORDER to the Senate_

"I don't believe that the best course of action is war. We don't even have a full account of what happened on the _Never-Ending Peace_. It may have been an accident," said one Council member, a Twi'lek.

"The survivor assures us that it was no accident. The enemy's weapon, the Flood, as the Jedi call it, moved with purpose and intelligence," responded another, a representative from the ORDER.

"What about the human vessels attempting to stop the bio-weapon's delivery vessel?"

"A poor attempt to make it look as though it were an accident. We know they are not so incompetent as to simply allow something like that to happen. Cutting communications was suspicious as well, and that they never fired upon the vessel until it was too late to stop it. Then, their station attacked and destroyed the ISD _Freedom _with impunity."

"Only after they were fired upon themselves. Not once in this record did the Terrans ever engage without provocation."

"With the exception of that single vessel. We must question why a Terran vessel would so conveniently fall under the control of these parasites and appear in the system where our Ambassador was conducting negotiations. No, the ORDER and the military believe this was deliberate. For what purpose, we cannot guess, but it shows that these are not a people to be trifled with. Your own military is calling for an assault to show them the folly of their attack." The ORDER woman looked pointedly at the seated Navy admirals and the Generals of the Armies, most of whom were nodding in mute agreement. She turned back to the Senate and spread her hands in an open gesture.

"We know very little about these humans. There may be more than they've told us, or far fewer. They may have technologies and weapons we never knew about. If we are not careful, they may become a malignant cancer in our own systems. There is evidence to show that this Rift works two ways. They can come through and attack us as easily as we travel through Hyperspace." Technically, not very easy at all. Common, but very complicated. Once one had a Hyperspace drive and a ship capable of powering it, though...

The Senate was abuzz with questions and arguments. Her statement presented, she stepped down from the central dais while another stepped up. A Jedi from their council, the Arkadian Aernon, stood facing the Senate and raised his hands to calm them.

"I agree that the Terrans are dangerous, and that they cannot be allowed into this galaxy. They are too volatile. However, open war, or even just a direct attack to scare them into hiding, would be a vast waste of resources. The Council advises that there is much, much more to these seemingly simple humans than first meets the eye. We feel that war would be disastrous for both of our galaxies, more so than any other war before. We feel that they have more power than can be measured by mind or machine." Questions and glares met this statement. No one really understood the power of the New Jedi Order. It was all too mysterious to trust, yet they'd rarely been wrong before. The secrecy was necessary so that the people didn't call for them to be purged again because of their abilities. It was no coincidence that some primitive worlds called them "sykirs." It was, ironically, this necessity for secrecy that caused them to be distrusted anyway. And everyone was still wary of the corruption from the Empire and their Sith backers.

"Perhaps now would be a good time to call the witness forward. Padawan Brisa Offee." The man stood to come forward and give his report, but before he could an aid whispered to Aernon. His eyes snapped open.

"Pardon my interruption, Senators, but a matter has arisen. There is a massive Sith fleet headed towards Coruscant. They're calling for...an audience to discuss terms of alliance."

**~~O~~**

The Jedi Council had been in session for hours discussing this disturbing turn of events. The Sith simply did not ask for alliances. Not even with each other. Yet here was a Triumvirate of Sith from the fringes of the galaxy, asking to help with the Rift situation. Naturally, the Jedi were very suspicious.

They'd identified themselves as Darth Titan, Darth Xizov, and Darth Dracus. Each one was unknown to any record, save for Titan, who was presumed dead. Somehow, though, each had amassed several large fleets and armies of followers. Where they'd come from, no one knew, and how they'd formed together, no one knew.

"Not since the Purge of fifty years ago have we seen Sith in this number. How did they escape our notice so easily?" Demanded one of the Council.

"That's immaterial," responded another. "We've been running in circles. We need to make a decision, quickly. The Republic won't hold off for long in making their decision on what to do about the Terran threat. We don't need another war on our hands. These Sith may in fact be useful to that end."

"How? The Sith are naturally destructive in their use of the Force to gain power."

"Perhaps we can initiate a conflict here and let the assembled Republic fleets wipe them out before they become a true threat," said one from across the circle. He was immediately silenced by glares.

"Be quiet, everyone!" Barked Master Pagnell, a human native to Coruscant. "Watch this recording from the Sith's audience with the Senate." It played. The Sith Dracus was speaking.

"...it not be said that we agreed with what Palpatine had done. Back then, we tried very hard to remain unnoticed by the galaxy at large, so that we might continue our teachings without interlopers and attacks from those who do not understand. That all changed when your Jedi Council launched its Great Purge, destroying many of our number unprovoked. I ask you now to look past the petty differences between Jedi and Sith, for at least the time being. We are here to help you to destroy and abomination. Once that goal is achieved, we will go back to our systems and bother you no more."

"What abomination?" He was asked. "Those Terrans were only humans."

"Your Jedi would preach to you that we Sith are corrupted versions of themselves, dark, twisted madmen out for the destruction of all. In fact, there is little difference between your Force-sensitives and our own – we simply take a more direct path to that Power." He took a breath, then continued. "On the other side of that Rift are creatures and beings far more horrible than the fictitious monsters your Council makes the Sith out to be. We have on record, in databases from the time of the Galactic Empire, a visitation to Coruscant itself from a contingent of these so-called humans. One alone managed to destroy entire platoons of Stormtroopers, and leave very little evidence behind.

"Some of you may be familiar with the reports surrounding the 13-B entity. It had a very peculiar effect: it was a dead spot in the Force, projecting a field that was torturous to those of us sensitive to the presence of the Force. Occasionally, a touch would outright kill a Force user, the shock of it's loss to great to bear. And there are other things, as well. Those creatures that attacked the _Never-Ending Peace_, the strange biological terrors in the report – these are the abomination of which I spoke. They are the power of the Force, distilled, amplified, and uncontrolled. They are the true corruption your Council would have you believe the Sith are."

The assembled Jedi winced at those words. They had indeed sensed that those horrific creatures were bastardized versions of Force-sensitive beings.

"I tell you, the enemy (and that is what they are!) may seem primitive to you, but they possess a power even they cannot control. Which says nothing of this Rift in and of itself!

"The Rift is, in layman's terms, a gigantic hole in reality, an an affront to the Force itself. It is a monstrous outpouring of energy that will continue to grow until it consumes all. We have done extensive research of our own and concluded that the Rift is more threatening to life in this galaxy than was the Jedi Civil War of thousands of years ago or the Yuuzhan Vong attacks merely a few centuries ago. It is a hole through which terrors of countless worlds and realities may come. We may have been enemies in the past, but even we Sith do not want this Galaxy destroyed. As odd as it may seem, all we want is a peaceful outcome.

"In fact, should we conquer that Milky Way Galaxy, we Sith are willing to take custody of it and never return to the Republic again."

At hearing this, shouts equivalent to "Oh, _hell _no!" rang around the Jedi Council. Pagnell was tempted to smack his own face. It was too blunt, to clumsy, too blatantly random for the Senate to even consider it.

And yet, they did. And they agreed to an alliance with the Sith, on the condition that they follow the command of the Republic for the duration of the fighting.

**~~O~~**

"That was much easier than expected," Dracus said to Xizov and Titan later. "They took the bait perfectly."

"Most of them already wanted to attack anyway. It seems that this galaxy gets boring when there's no fighting going on," Titan put in.

"There's always some fight or major conflict, it would seem. Some planet somewhere is always going to war with itself."

"True, but I meant that there never seems to be anything going on in this galaxy if there isn't a war in the stars. It almost seems like one of those never-ending holodramas the Republic is so fond of." Titan sat down at the triangular table in the Lords' meeting place. To his left was Dracus. Xizov stood off to the side, looking out at the world spinning below. It was insane, really. That little speech should never have worked. But it had, and quite well, too.

"The falsified holocron records satisfied even the Jedi. The fools believe that the enemy has any chance of success," Titan laughed. "The odds that the 13-B entity is even still alive are second to none. We could crush them right now if we wanted to."

"There is also truth to what I told them. The Rift goes to other, darker places than the Terran galaxy. And those creatures that attacked the _Never-Ending Peace _are dangerous. I may have stretched the truth a little so that they would favor us, but do not underestimate the enemy."

"They would not have believed it had I not tilted their perceptions in the background." Xizov turned around to face the other two Lords. "I was unable to influence the Jedi Council, but the Senate is arrayed against them now anyway. They won't be able to stop what's coming."

"No, they won't. The Republic will support us for the time being, even more so once we draw out the fullest extent of the enemy's powers. Titan, proceed with the plan."

**~~O~~**

The Sith Alliance formed from the remains of a Sith Empire that had remained quiet and hidden for years until Palpatine made the presence of the Sith known to the galaxy once again. Even then, the majority of the followers of the Dark Side kept to themselves on Korriban and the systems surrounding it. They remained largely unknown to the greater populace of the galaxy, and the Jedi had an uneasy, unspoken truce with them; "Stay away from us and we'll stay away from you." It went on like this for nearly a hundred eighty years after the fall of the Galactic Empire, until an enterprising young Jedi named Atla Skywalker gathered a following of like-minded padawans and Jedi and launched a Purge against the Sith. It was during this crusade that the planet Korriban was razed to the ground, its surface turned to molten slag.

Darth Titan and his following had been largely responsible for stopping the Purge. In secret, he tracked down and killed Atla, severing the direction of the large fleet. After this, two other Sith Lords arose from the remains of the Empire, Dracus and Xizov. Whereas Titan favored action and aggression, Xizov was a great strategist and Dracus was powerful in the Force. After a brief conflict between the three factions, they eventually decided that the Sith couldn't continue to exist in the galaxy constantly at odds with each other. Darth Xizov had posed the idea of the Sith Alliance, which made its base on a large forest world without name. The others agreed to it.

After the formation of this more civilized culture of the followers of the Dark Side, the Sith once again fell out of notice by the rest of the galaxy. Even the Jedi were blind to the comings and goings of the Alliance, though they would likely have done nothing towards it in any case. What the Jedi did not know was that the ORDER had been infiltrated by Sith operatives, in order to stop it from gaining Sith artifacts and knowledge. Any that were found were shipped to a research facility on a world in the outer rim called Heetris. After that, they were never seen again by the ORDER, as the data and objects were sent to the Sith Alliance via discreet means.

It was through these channels that the Sith heard of the Rift and the happenings surrounding that. Since ORDER had technically been its discoverer, the word had shot down the grapevine before anyone could stop it. The supply chain brought immutable proof that a disturbance they'd been puzzling about in fact had physical basis. The object varied in description, and for a while it was just a disturbance. But then one day reports came of the other humans through the Rift and the Sith Alliance mobilized to respond to the obvious threat against the Force.

**~~O~~**

Jamus Thadlen was a sensors technician onboard a sensors satellite on the edge of the Coruscant system. It was a thankless job. Each day he would rise and run a diagnostic on all of the systems in the small station. It was a boring job. There was never anything wrong with any of them, and his was a task more suited to a droid. It was a dead end job. He had no family, no friends save for a few that had died in a horrible shipping accident, and he was alone on the station. Every month he'd take the single shuttle on the station and report for a physical at Control. After that, he was given a week off and then had to go back. Most of his vast amount of free time was spent on the Interplanetary Network, a large, live database that connected the inhabited planets and bodies in the system. He'd become quite popular on a couple of forums, and he posted many times a day in conversations.

It took four days for the people he would converse with to realize that he'd been gone for a while. It took an entire week for Control to realize he was late for his physical.

It took a single second for Darth Titan's large fleet to idly destroy his particular station with a torpedo before continuing into Hyperspace to the Rift.

**End Part Two**

**

* * *

**So there's Part II. It's short, choppy, and ends on an awkward note. That's about all I've got to say about it.

I encourage people again to look into the site this is based off of. We've got two other projects going on as well, a Machinima to follow (loosely) the events of Genesis, and a soundtrack in the works written by members of the site. One of our members is also writing a FanFic of his own for something not related to Halo or Star Wars.

If possible, I'd like to start getting some feedback on my writing. Good or bad, doesn't matter. As long as it's constructive. I want to learn to write better, perhaps professionally one day.


	3. Part III: Welcoming Party

_**Part III**_

_**Welcoming Party**_

Not long after his talk with Xiong, Admiral Sheppard found himself dispatched with all the vessels at his command to guard the Rift. There was already a fleet there, but it was relatively tiny. To his amusement, he found that Xiong had also been sent to shore up the defenses around the object that was the source of their troubles.

In total, only seventy-six ships were present at what was designated the Hot Zone around the Rift. They ranged from frigates to large cruisers and carriers. There were three supercarriers as well, one in Xiong's fleet and two in Sheppard's own. That this many capital ships could be built so soon after the Covenant War was thanks to a Forerunner manufacturing station found in orbit around a planet in a system close to Harvest. It couldn't build capital ships outright, but the Elites, with the help of a Monitor from one of the reclaimed Forerunner Dreadnoughts, found a way to reprogram it to create the necessary parts for the construction of the ships. This allowed them to mass produce the components to reconstruct and surpass the fleet they lost in the War. In fact, it contained data for materials and technologies that made the ships stronger. Compatible shields, for one thing.

Humanity had been progressing on its own, as well. New weapons and upgrades to those still in use increased the power of the human war machine. A particular favorite amongst the Marines on the ground were MAR-20 semi-automatic rifles. Magnetically Accelerated Rounds, 20mm armor piercing. They punched holes in tanks and left bigger holes in soft targets. And, thanks to repurposed factories that used to produce capital ship parts, they were as common as rocks.

Capital MAC guns were mostly the same. However, thanks to Covenant technologies, the power was doubled. Stronger, lighter materials used in construction also made the reload time shorter. Forerunner shield systems. More powerful fusion reactors. More, more, more. In twenty years, the human race had hit an economic bursting point and a new Golden Age of technology. How this happened in such a short time, few knew, and no one was telling. Fewer still even cared. Most people weren't about to look the gift horse in the mouth.

In short, the UNSC was back up to speed and surpassing its previous power.

Sheppard watched the minutes tick down on his watch. The timer had been running since he sent Jacob Strabo to reconnoiter the Rift. He'd been given a very specific set of instructions up to a point. That point was arriving faster than he'd like.

"Put the fleets on high alert. Tell Xiong it's time," he said to his communications officer. "Tesla, begin running active scans on the Rift. Tell me the instant something changes." The comms officer forwarded Xiong's open channel to the Admiral's command chair.

"Are you certain this will work? If your message wasn't received, we'll be so much dust in the wind here."

Sheppard frowned slightly. "I've told you, I have no idea. This is just what he told me to do, and so far, it's played out exactly like he said it would."

Captain John Lorimer stepped onto the bridge of his Destroyer, the _Redeemer_. Like most other ships in the fleet, it had been equipped with upgraded weaponry and shields, though, being a relatively small ship, there wasn't much space for additions. He was a middle-aged man beginning to reach his later years of service. He'd served during the Covenant War as a second lieutenant and won his Captain ranking during the Siege of Earth. During the counterstrike against Truth, he took over command of a Destroyer when the Covenant infiltrated and killed most of the command crew. After driving them off, he led the vessel to destroy a Covenant Carrier that was heading to reinforce Voi.

"The fleet is holding position, sir. We're set to link up with the _Resolute, Settra, _and _Orelia_ within the flanking fleet for if the enemy appears," one of the bridge officers told him.

"Alright, take us out."

"You know we don't stand a chance against them," said Tesla to Sheppard.

"You think I don't know that? I know better than most of the people in this fleet. Our main strategy hinges on help arriving before they destroy us completely."

"And you believe that will happen? I told you before, there was no point in this. You found that enemy I warned you about."

"It wasn't my fault anyway, you insufferable strand of code. If Xiong hadn't given the go-ahead on Reach Station, we wouldn't be in this predicament at all."  
"Would you shut up about-" Sheppard interrupted the AI.

"Tesla, command override: S-T-F-U."

"Understood, sir," the AI answered grudgingly. "Deactivating current conversation."

"Admiral, Slipspace rupture directly behind the fleet," said a bridge officer. "It's the Elites."

"Elites," Sheppard said slowly. "I thought they were refusing help. Contact the flagship." It was done. The Sangheili on the other end looked much like any other. He was wearing decorated golden armor and a silver-lined helmet.

"This is Fleet Master Zectoy. We're here to reinforce the Rift under the command of Admiral Sheppard. What is you want, human?" Though the entire exchange dripped contempt, this last word he spat as thought it were an insult.

"We're thankful for your arrival, Zectoy. I am Sheppard. Please deploy your ships here and here to flank the enemy from above and below when they arrive."

"Is that all, Admiral?"

"Yes, thank-" Zectoy cut the link. "You," Sheppard finished. "Alright. Xiong, the Elites are moving to complete the formation from above and below the Rift. We should have the enemy pincered when they arrive. Tesla, give me an update on-"

"Extreme energy spike detected!" Tesla said, appearing beside Sheppard. "The Rift is generating energy equivalent to the output of several dozen stable-stage yellow stars."

"Would people stop interrupting me?"

On the main screen, they looked at an image project from one of the nearest ships to the Rift. It had the appearance of a great, purple-pink eye. The center was a black iris and pupil, with the color a miasma bleeding off to either side in the shape of an inward-bent triangle.

Currently, bright flashes of light erupted from the "pupil." The "white" shifted slowly into a reddened orange hue. The light coalesced into a single beam lancing out from the center of the dark area perpendicular to the flat plane of the rest of the eye.

"It looks bad," Xiong said in a deadpan voice. The Sangheili fleet wasn't in position yet, not even close. Something began to take shape within the dark center. It was huge.

Sith Lord Titan's gigantic _Eclipse-_class Super Star Destroyer was the first ship of his fleet to arrive in the Milky Way Galaxy. It paused when it appeared. Everything seemed to hang still for a moment save the ever-roiling backdrop of the Rift. Then, the main superlaser fired from its prow and neatly sliced into two UNSC frigates and a destroyer before the rest of its massive complement opened up. Forerunner shielding was all but useless against the onslaught. Shortly after the opener, more Sith vessels began to arrive. In total, three hundred ships of varying type arrived through the Rift in less than a minute.

"Admiral Sheppard to all vessels, fire at will! I repeat, fire at will!" And they did. The nebula was filled with MAC rounds and missiles. Somehow, the enemy took hits. The MAC rounds weakened and penetrated the enemy shields, destroying a few of the smaller enemies. Nuclear warheads began to detonate within the Sith fleet. The Sangheili fleet came about as well and began to hammer the enemy. Plasma weapons, now even more powerful than they were during the Covenant War, poured into the target-rich environment.

**~~O~~**

The Sith Lord Titan sat on his command throne on the _Eclipse III_, watching and feeling the battle raging around him. There was definitely something wrong here. These primitive weapons shouldn't be able to weaken their shields, let alone destroy his vessels. Already, nearly twenty Star Destroyers of varying sorts had fallen prey to the enemy's powerful slug-throwers. Close-defense systems did nothing to slow or divert the projectiles. The missiles, thankfully, were largely ineffective. Most, anyway. There were a few more powerful types that exploded in large, gamma radiation-filled bursts that cooked through shields.

The enemy was fairing far worse, however. Turbolaser and proton torpedo volleys were enough to destroy almost any ship they had brought to bear. He noted two main differences between them; some of the ships were blockier and made of a grey material, and others were sleek, blue, and almost organic. The organic ones spat plasma-based lasers at his ships, but the energy attack was mostly dispersed. The output was too weak to take down shields without concentrated fire. They were already beginning to pull back in defeat.

He decided to help their despair. Reaching out with the Force, he searched for nearby enemy vessels. What he found was a pair of carriers that were beginning to scramble fighter-bombers. He dug into the controlled star at the center of each one and destabilized it, causing power surges throughout both ships. They exploded from within as various systems began to fail and overload.

Titan collapsed deeper into his chair from the effort. There was definitely something wrong with this galaxy. The Force itself was weak here. He felt weak. He would normally have been able to crush every being on a ship and leave the massive bleed of energy for Dracus to feed off of. They'd used the tactic to subjugate almost the entirety of the remaining Sith population. Not so here; it took him insane effort just to reach out to sense the area around him. The other Sith in the fleet were all sensing the same, impossible thing. What the Jedi had said was true: these beings did not feel the power of the Force.

"Then perhaps we should show it to them. Darth Antes, begin your ceremony," the Sith Lord said.

Another vessel in the Sith fleet, a ring of ten Sith stood from their kneeling positions and stood with their feet shoulder-width apart. They put their hands up to the side palms out, pressing each hand against the hand of the Dark Jedi next to them. Two more stood in the center, lightsabers drawn. A nimbus of light began to form around the circle as the two Masters in the middle began to duel, slowly at first with precise movements. Gradually, the pace quickened; as it did, the light became brighter and more violent.

Titan laughed. He could feel the onrush of power coming from that vessel, pouring into every Sith of great enough power to feel it. He channeled the energy and destroyed two more enemy ships, first crumpling their control centers and then their power supplies. It was still nothing compared to what they could unleash within their own realm.

Abruptly, the steady influx of power became an explosion as one of the dueling Masters was slain. The Sith Lord arched and grabbed his chair as he drew on immense energies generated by Darth Antes' circle. His eyes glowed as he grinned and reached out with a hand, clenching his fist. The viewscreen filled with explosions.

He sensed a smaller fleet heading straight for his Eclipse-class from his right. He shifted his attention to them and looked in upon the dim beings contained within their bubbles of space.  
**~~O~~**

Captain Lorimer was thrown out of his chair when his ship suddenly lurched. The enemy hadn't even fired upon them yet. Reports came in from across his vessel. People were exploding into showers of gore and power levels were going haywire. Some mystical power was killing his ship from the inside, and he didn't have a clue what it was.

"Have we still got fire control?" He asked to the haze-filled bridge. Air scrubbers were working to remove the smoke after someone put out the fire.

"Yes. The MAC will still fire," came the reply.

"Good. Tell the fleet to concentrate on that vessel right in front of us, the biggest one." He felt his ship rock again, but this time it was from the kick of the great gun within it. He saw four individual streaks of light heading for the enemy's flagship, accompanied by several hundred Archer missiles. The _Orelia _launched its single remaining warhead.

Nothing impacted upon the hull. The shields held against everything they threw at it. When it returned fire, the _Orelia_ was the first to go, followed by the Halcyon cruiser _Settra._ Lorimer saw several green lights headed towards the bridge. Fear overwhelmed his senses.

"Out!" He yelled, sprinting through the blast doors. He was knocked off his feet and tossed clear across the hall as the Turbolaser impacted directly on his bridge.

**~~O~~**

Titan watched as the small contingent burned under the _Eclipse III_'s guns. He felt them die, but the spark was weaker than it should have been.

Something impossible happened, then. The ship rocked as something impacted upon the hull. The enemy had breached his shields with their primitive weaponry somehow and were doing damage. He looked outward and saw what it was. The enemy's command ship, the one directing all of their movements, had stupidly decided to challenge a ship more than six times its size.

"Fire the main laser on that ship. Show them the folly of attacking the Sith!"

Two points of energy met, and a green light lanced out of the prow of the great vessel.

**~~O~~**

Lorimer regained consciousness, only to nearly black out again as pain shot straight to his mind. He groaned and tried to stand. He couldn't. His left leg was bent backwards and the knee and the middle of his ankle was folded back _again _behind his thigh. He was glad he couldn't feel anything from the waist down.

Surprisingly, his arms were fine. Raising his head, he dragged himself along the floor to a nearby wall console. Red lights showed on all the diagnostics. Life support, weapons, even refrigeration in the mess hall. He noticed that there was no light in the hallway either, only red emergency lights. The console flickered in and out as power began to fail.

All diagnostics, that is, save two. External sensors showed the enemy flagship about to fire on the _Argonaut_, Admiral Sheppard's command vessel. Its shields were about to fail. It would be destroyed by the enemy. The armada's resolve would break then and there. He felt helpless, suddenly. The UNSC's numbers had been cut in half and then some by the enemy's overwhelming might. They were unstoppable. He screamed. There had to be something he could do. He looked about the console.

That second green light...

**~~O~~**

"Tesla! Divert all available energy to the forward shields!" Sheppard shouted to be heard above blaring alarms. The _Argonaut _had taken damage already from the initial attack from the enemy.

"Admiral, it won't be enough. We can't withstand that firepower in our weakened state," came the damning answer. "I believe this would be...it." The AI flickered, dimming, then brightened again. "Admiral! There's a vessel moving to intercept!"

The _Redeemer _moved across the view in the distance, directly between the enemy's flagship and the _Argonaut._ Its engines fired intermittently and it vented atmosphere in several places.

The _Eclipse III _struck the determination of mankind and the beam lost its energy piercing through the destroyer. The laser still struck its target, but it didn't break through the shields.

"Tesla, who was in command of that ship?" Sheppard asked.

"Captain Johnathan Lorimer. I'm getting no life signs," the AI added, though it was obvious there wouldn't be any. It had been cut almost in half by the laser. Sheppard swore. The enemy was too powerful. Reports from across the fleet told the same story. They were losing completely. It was just like the Covenant War all over again.

"Get us out of here, Tesla. We won't last here. We've lost this one." He sighed. "This is Admiral Sheppard to all remaining vessels. We can't hold against the enemy here. Their numbers are too great and their ships are too powerful. I'm commanding a full retreat. All ships, break off and return to Reach. I repeat, break off and retreat. We'll regroup at Reach."

"Admiral!" Tesla shouted. "Extreme energy spike detected!"

"_What?_"

_**End Part III**_

_**

* * *

**_

Someone's bound to point out all of the discrepancies in weapon power and shield strength and yadda yadda yadda. We understand that in real life, it wouldn't play out anything like what we've portrayed here. But for the sake of a good story, certain canon rules must be set aside.

We've been asked how it is that the UNSC was able to create all the new tech it did in under half a century. Our view is that they probably had a lot of things in the design phase during the Covenant War, but didn't have the time, ability, or funding to get them all to the development stage. Well, now they've had time, and there's a lot more to come in regards to what sort of new goodies they have.

Be on the lookout for some extra content after Opening Salvo is done. We'll be putting together a Halo Versus Star Wars Technical Analysis separate from the main story. It'll be updated from time to time as new things appear in the story that might need explanations too unwieldy to fit into regular exposition. Essentially, it will be a Tech Manual for Halo Versus Star Wars and help explain things like the Rift, the MAR-20 and other new goodies, schematics on flagships and other important vessels like Reach Station, and overviews of character equipments once we get around to that stage.

We again want to advertise for the site this is based off of. It's on the Invisionfree boards and is labeled as Halo Versus Star Wars. We have an in-progress OST, a machinima, and a text-based RPG where one can actually play out battles such as this.


	4. Part IV: Scale Tip

_**Part IV**_

_**Scale Tip**_

The Rift sparked and shimmered, the swirling energy becoming more violent. The purple glow faded into a dark grey. It shook once, as though struck by a great hammer, and then the purple returned brightly. Something began to take shape within the black.

It was humongous. Twenty kilometers from one end to another, it was far larger than anything else present in the hot zone. It resolved itself to be a ship, a colossal vessel studded with spires and carpeted with weapons. It's shape was vaguely like that of a UNSC destroyer, though much bigger_. _Six engines on its aft provided the thrust necessary to move such an object. Attached to its hull were two enormous cannons. Within its prow was the barrel of a complex delivery system for missiles of the most powerful kind. Such was its size that great MAC-like weapons were all across the vessel.

It hung there for a minute, just like the _Eclipse III _had done. Sheppard watched with dread, hoping against all hope that it was him.

"Wait a minute," said one of the bridge officers. "Isn't that a Spa-"

The vessel became corporeal and these weapons spat superheated death. Beams of light overloaded Sith shields and sliced into their hulls. Solid slugs were hurled into the damaged ships, and they slammed into the interior and exploded in brilliant blue displays. The first salvo alone destroyed five large warships. Return fire from the enemy fleet bounced off the great vessel's powerful shields. A communication blasted across the nebula.

"This is Combat Admiral Daniels of the strike cruiser _Fist of Dorn. _Sorry we're late, Sheppard."

**~~O~~**

Darth Titan reeled on the bridge of the _Eclipse._ Who was this interloper? Where did he come from, and what sort of weaponry was he using? Thoughts bounced around his head as he saw another two vessels destroyed by the juggernaut _Fist of Dorn_. No single ship could defend itself from an entire fleet for long. Concentrated fire would bring down even the toughest shielding, and even a vessel of that size had to have a main command bridge.

"Get me a channel to that ship. I want to find out who this Daniels is!" The bridge officer in charge of shipwide communications bowed.

"It is done, my Lord."

"This is Darth Titan of the _Eclipse III_. Identify yourself."

"I'm Combat Admiral Charles Tucker Daniels of the Asylum strike cruiser, the _Fist of Dorn_. I assume you're one of the Sith Alliance's peons?"

Titan took the jab. "Peon? Who the hell do you think I am? I am one of the Lords on the Triumvirate!" He paused. "How do you know of us? We have no record of this Asylum, or of you, anywhere." The Sith Lord could almost see the man's smug grin through the helmeted visage on the screen.

"Does _13-B_ mean anything to you?" At Titan's widened eyes, he continued. "I see that it does. Your records tell of an entity who infiltrated Coruscant and destroyed platoons of Stormtroopers single-handedly, who assaulted a Sith temple on Korriban itself and left none alive. That was me. I am the specter of your past, the faceless fear you Sith see lurking in the shadows. I am the Invisible Blade. The Solus Meg Ke'nu'cuyir."

"Enough grandstanding!" The Sith shouted. "You have a powerful vessel, I'll admit that. Weapons and shields to rival our most powerful. But a single vessel has no chance of stopping us. We are the Sith, and we are far greater than you." He stopped as the man chuckled.

"Is that so?"

"My lord!" said the tactical station officer. "The Rift is showing a spike in energy output. It's immeasurable!"

The Rift turned grey again. This time, however, many shapes formed within it. Different sizes, different shapes and functions. First ten, then a hundred, then two hundred. In the end, five hundred eighteen vessels ranging from cargo ships to truly gigantic supercarriers arrived out of the Rift. Titan looked on in mounting rage as he saw the armada arrayed against his slightly more than a hundred remaining warships. On the screen, Daniels nodded.

"All vessels, open fire!"

**~~O~~**

The crews of the UNSC vessels burst out cheering. None of them had any idea who this Daniels was or where he'd come from, but it didn't matter to them. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and their new friend had a fleet more than three times the size of the enemy's own. Sheppard grinned at his old compatriot's arrival. Shameless as ever. Now, to take advantage of the Sith's plight. He opened a fleetwide band.

"This is Fleet Admiral Sheppard to all UNSC and Sangheili vessels. If you're able to fight, form up behind the _Argonaut. _Admiral Xiong, rally your fleet and come about. We're going to pincer the Sith between Daniels and us."

"Affirmative," Xiong answered. He glanced at the screen in awe at the sight of the _Fist of Dorn_.So that was Sheppard's backup plan. Sheppard had been right the entire time, about all of it. The timing was precise, and the results spectacular. With allies that powerful, losing this war would be an impossibility. He wouldn't even need to use the Prowler.

Zectoy was having a similar reaction to the Deus Ex Machina that had appeared before them. The rout was quickly turning into a victory. The loss was becoming a curb-stomp in the favor of the descendants of the Forerunner. But how did this man know Sheppard? For that matter, how did Sheppard know this man? Thoughts bounced around his head as he ordered the fleet around to face the enemy.

**~~O~~**

Titan screamed at the sight of his fleet crushed between the two enemies. It was impossible. No one had ever been able to defeat his fleet in a pitched battle. He couldn't deny the power of the Asylum warships. They used weapons of far greater yield than the Terran defenders could bring to bear.

"But then, so do we. Fire the superlaser at the _Fist of Dorn. _Let us see them repel that!"

**~~O~~**

On the _Fist of Dorn_, Daniels watched his fleet cutting into the Sith. It had been difficult to procure this many vessels for the task force. Over five hundred ships of varying kinds. The logistics were a nightmare, but the higher-ups had to admit that he had tenure. After everything he'd done for them, a little leeway in acquisitions was a trifling thing. It was less than a fiftieth of Asylum's full armada.

Daniels had lived for over ninety Earth years as a military man. Sixty years of that, he spent fighting a single great war. He'd seen all sorts of atrocities and horrors, from undying machines to things from Hell that would make most go mad on sight. Whole systems burned, resurrected, and burned again under his command. Untold trillions of lives spent in a single battle. Physical gods had died in front of him. This War would be nothing, for it was written: In the Grim Future of the Fiftieth Millennium, There is Only War.

"Chiron, what's the status of the UNSC fleet?" He asked the smart AI that presided over the great battleship.

"I've contacted several AI's across their fleet. They've been halved since the beginning of the battle. It seems the Sith Lord used a massed Force technique and destroyed a good deal of their ships. The Sangheili fleet is in relatively good condition. They escaped the brunt of the attack somehow. It's interesting to see the species so different now from what they're like back home." The AI appeared, lifesized, projected beside Daniels by the holographic imaging field layered over the bridge. He took the form of a tall, thin, bearded man in a very nice suit. He had white gloves and, peculiarly, orange-tinted sunglasses.

"And the _Argonaut_?"

"The AI, Tesla, reports that the vessel is damaged but intact. It's still capable of combat, should the need arise. Oh." The AI paused. "The Sith flagship is powering their main cannon. Orders?"

"Respond in kind. Fire the Eversor cannons..." Daniels brought up a schematic of _Eclipse_-class Super Star Destroyers in front of him. "Here," he said, pointing at a particular section. He idly waved his hand, and the screen projected in the air in front of him vanished. He watched as the two great cannons swiveled "up" towards the _Eclipse III._

They fired at the same time, two great beams of light lancing out of their enormous barrels at the enemy's flagship. At the same time, the superlaser on the SSD's prow fired. The beam met one from the _Fist_ and they dispersed into nothing. The other beam from the Asylum flagship, however, continued on and pierced straight through the weakened shields and hull of the great Sith vessel. The shot gutted the main reactors of the ship.

The Sith Lord was helpless to resist as explosions rippled across the great length of his vessel. He could _feel_ those under his command dying. The lights of their lives burst in little displays and winked out. He could not control his rage at the enemy. He felt a great upwelling of power as the Force was released from thousands of beings in his fleet.

"You bastards. I will show you the power of the Force!" Titan rose from his throne as sparks danced around him. He would crush them. Utterly, completely, crush every being in that damned vessel. He reached out to the enemy flagship, the _Fist of Dorn_, seeking the lives of those within...and met a solid, unyielding barrier. No, not unyielding. _Absorbing._

He drew back and screamed. This couldn't be possible. No such object should exist, let alone be _alive._

Daniels looked up. And grinned.

"Burn them."

The guns of the Eighth Task Force tore into the great vessel and those around it. What was left of its infrastructure shattered as hundreds of weapons impacted on its vast hull. Titan turned to run just as a torpedo impacted upon the front of his bridge. The last thoughts he had before the explosion consumed him were directed at the defenders of the Milky Way Galaxy.

"I will _end _you_ ALL!_"

**~~O~~**

Sheppard watched as the remnants of the large Sith fleet fled into the Rift. The corpse of the _Eclipse III _drifted through space, burnt and broken, parts of it still exploding. There had been escape pods launched from it, but the Asylum forces didn't bother to contain them. The blow had been done, the message sent.

"Sheppard," said Xiong warily, "Did you know he would bring this kind of firepower? That he even had this kind of firepower?"

"No. No, I didn't have any idea. What's the status of your fleet?"

"Operational, for the most part. We didn't take too heavy of casualties when the Sith first arrived. Most of the damage was to yours and the Elites' fleet."

Sheppard heaved a sigh. "I know. There are three vessels that miraculously escaped any damage. Beyond that, a lot of my ships are dead in the water." Another link opened. It was Daniels. Sheppard grinned openly, and Xiong, who was also linked to the local Command Net, gave a suspicious narrowing of the eyes. Daniels himself was wearing a complicated-looking helmet with no distinct visor, only three green, glowing orbs where the eyes would be. The visage nodded.

"Well met, Sheppard. You're Xiong, I see, and the one about to join the link is Zectoy." The voice never changed from an all-business tone. Zectoy soon appeared as well, and also eyed Daniels suspiciously.

"Admirals Sheppard and Xiong, I must return to Sanghelios. I trust you can manage to handle things here with your new ally?" Every word dripped contempt, but the Elite seemed to radiate special hatred for the ONI Admiral. After a curt nod from the alien, the link closed, leaving the three Admirals. Silence reigned for a few moments.

"I don't think we've been formally introduced," said Daniels. "Combat Admiral Charles Daniels of the Eighth Task Force of Asylum, Gateway Division."

"Fleet Admiral Pierre Xiong, UNSC. I've never even heard of that rank, what does 'Combat Admiral' mean?"

"It grants me all of the command privileges and responsibilities of an Admiral, but I continue to be more valuable on the front lines than in a management position. I serve as both Navy commander and General of the Armies. On the command hierarchy in Asylum, it's second to the Council, which is second only to Throne. In your terms, I would be in command of the UNSC, while above me would be the UN, and above that the President. However, given the sheer size of Asylum, the UNSC would only comprise a small portion of it."

"Interesting. I assume you're not from around here, then."

"Actually, I am. I will explain everything I can and any question you have in due time. First, we need to prepare." Daniels turned and tapped at a different screen that appeared behind him.

"Prepare for what?" Sheppard asked. Daniel stopped briefly and turned slightly around.

"This war hasn't even started yet, Sheppard. You can't imagine the weapons they can bring to bear. It's only going to get worse from here. A lot worse."

_**End Part IV**_

**

* * *

**

Yes, this is pathetically short, even by my standards. This is because writing complex battles is a difficult thing to do. It is also because my classes have been sapping my creative capability enhancement reserve, also known as _energy._ Many apologies for a half-assed chapter.

Worry not. The fifth and final chapter in _Opening Salvo_ will be much longer and answer a lot of those nagging questions I'm sure at least some of you have.

As always, constructive criticism and reviews are welcomed and appreciated, so please do.

* * *

**Bonus Segment**

While Daniels, Sheppard, and Xiong were getting acquainted, a completely different conversation was taking place between Tesla and Chiron, though it only took the space of a few seconds and was in a language no human could understand. It was also more direct, given that any emotions conveyed by the two AI constructs were electronic data and could be read easily. Tesla was trying to work out how Chiron was put together in such an advanced way, and Chiron was trying to figure out why a "built-for-maintenance civilian computer" was analyzing him.

Tesla was, of course, indignant at that. He was a top-of-the-line smart AI, damn it! Guaranteed ten years of functionality, full personality programming, and based off of one of the best scientific minds of history. He'd been in more battles than any AI currently in service. He was no maintenance droid!

Chiron waved it off as one might a demand from a bratty child. Top of the line? Must have been a short rope, then. He could process thousands of times faster than any number of UNSC AI's put together. His data arrays were comprised of the sum total of human history for the last fifty thousand years, and still had room for twice that amount. Terabytes of information in seconds. Current service time: seven hundred ninety-two thousand, four hundred thirty hours and two thousand, six hundred fifty-six seconds. Total ship-to-ship kills: seven hundred eighty. Total hand-to-hand kills (utilizing armor interface): two hundred twenty-eight. Total improvised neurological overload kills: thirty.

Tesla was about to respond in kind when the amount of service hours and the length of recorded human history hit him. And the part about neurological overload kills. Fifty thousand years?

Yes, came the response. A little less than forty-eight thousand more than you. The little AI couldn't begin to comprehend the accumulated knowledge stored withing Chiron's data arrays. Or, perhaps it could. He composed a summary of major events in his version of human history and relayed it. And Tesla understood.

Still, what was that about overload kills?

If Chiron had a face, he would have grinned smugly. During a particularly brutal battle in which the _Fist of Dorn_ was boarded, he had infected the computer interface implants of several of the enemy's soldiers and shocked their brains from the inside. Tissue cooked and melted as the pressure in their skulls skyrocketed, causing their heads to literally explode. It demoralized the enemy so much that they retreated off of the _Fist_ entirely.

If Tesla had a face, his jaw would have dropped.


	5. Part V: Greetings and Salutations

_**Part V**_

_**Greetings and Salutations**_

"Reach Station, this is the _Argonaut_, stand by for incoming. We're bringing some reinforcements."

"_Argonaut, _this is Reach Station. Say again, 'reinforcements?'"

"Confirmed, Reach Station. Requesting a cleared sector between these coordinates and a full refit fleet prepared."

"Copy, _Argonaut_. Hold on." The voice on the other end of the Slipspace communication paused, then spoke again, garbled by intermittent static. "This is Reach Station actual. These coordinates are a little large for your fleet. _Argonaut _actual, confirm coordinates please."

"Coordinates confirmed, Reach Station actual. Spending specs." Another pause.

"_Argonaut _actual, the specs on this are ridiculous. Reach Station could fit inside that thing. Several times over. Is this some kind of joke?"

"Negative, Reach Station actual, this is no joke. Confirm clearance."

"Clearance confirmed, _Argonaut _actual_._ Repair and Refit fleet en route to dropout location. Reach Station out."

**~~O~~**

What arrived in the Epsilon Eridani system two hours later was expected. Admirals Sheppard and Xiong brought their damaged fleets further into the system to enact repairs and requisition replacement resources. The unexpected part was the third, and far larger, fleet that dropped in behind them. It was made up of vaguely familiar shapes, some human, some Covenant-like. The fourth arrival was what really sent the system for a loop. The _Fist of Dorn_ was the single largest vessel the UNSC had ever encountered, and that included stations, and the numbers in the fleet accompanying it were staggering.

Daniels perused the scans of the system. There were 129 orbital MAC stations arranged in triplets at varying orbits around the planet, besides the much-larger Reach Station. Hundreds of vessels and most of the UNSC's navy brass were present. At least they were taking it seriously.

The Council was going to stonewall him on his proposition to lead a fleet through the Rift. It wasn't something that had been done before. At most, they would send through three or four vessels on very short missions. He knew time was running out on the UNSC's end, though, so he bypassed the Council all together and went straight to the Throne. After Daniels had argued his point, she told him to take as many vessels as he could muster in a week and help the defenders. Even as they had that conversation, though, a massive fleet of Tombships attacked Sol itself. The Throne gave him clearance to reactivate the mothballed Eighth Task Force, take as many of Asylum's Kasrkins as they could spare, and flee to the Rift. For some reason, she placed a special urgency on the salvation of the UNSC.

Five hundred of the least powerful spaceworthy vessels. With the exception of the _Fist of Dorn _and a select few others, none of the ships had been in service past the Second Covenant War. He'd been stuck with an armada of Y38K ships, old relics built thousands of years ago.

They were still well over thirty thousand years more advanced than anything the UNSC could bring to the table.

It had rankled to leave Earth in such a state, but he knew the Sol Defense Fleet could handle itself. It made him smirk to see the looks on these Terrans' faces when they saw the size of his fleet. Five hundred ships was minuscule compared to nearly every other fleet he'd commanded. Where he was from, battles raged across entire systems and beyond, including thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ships. Stars exploded in the background, all but unnoticed by the violence of combat.

The First Battle of the Rift was child's play compared to minor skirmishes in his galaxy. For in the grim future of the forty-first millennium, there is only war.

**~~O~~**

The image was that of a humanoid shadow. It was projected by the several holographic generators in the conference room, and hidden speakers worked in sequence to give the effect that it was actually the shadow speaking. The marvel of this was lost on Admiral Xiong as he watched his employer through narrowed eyes. The current leader of ONI Section III, and a thorough bastard, sat at the table and had his hands folded beneath his nose. Xiong stood in a spotlight in an otherwise dark room.

"Thank you for the report, Admiral. I assume Daniels will be at the meeting."

"Yes, sir. His presence is a requisite. The brass want to meet him personally, and he has valuable intel on the enemy we can use."

"What the Admirals want is irrelevant. You said in your report that Daniels opposes ONI. Elaborate."

"I, Sheppard, and Daniels briefly met on the _Argonaut _before we began transit back to Reach. During this, he deduced that I worked for Section III, or he already knew somehow. He made specific reference to Section VII in a particularly forward manner. I think he wanted me to show you this." He pressed a key to send the recorded data packet. It was Daniels' voice.

"_Those ONI bastards have no idea what they're dealing with. _Who _they're dealing with. They're tampering with powers far beyond their understanding, and if left unchecked, they will destroy all of humanity in their folly. I will not allow it to happen, Xiong. The Legion project will end by my hand before they produce a capable user."_

"So," said the Section III head, "he knows much more than we anticipated, and he opposes us. Can you remove this threat?"

"In all probability, no, sir. He's too powerful, and he never leaves his ship without that armor. I don't even know what his face looks like. However, I don't think he's a threat to the Office as a whole. He knows that we're vital to the functioning of the UNSC and humanity in general, and believe me, if there's something he'd give everything to defend, it's the human race."

"Irrelevant. Legion must be allowed to complete its work. Take the necessary steps to either draw Daniels away from Section VII, or remove his status as a threat."

"Understood." Xiong turned to leave.

"There is one other thing that must be addressed before you go to the summit, Admiral Xiong. Admiral Sheppard has knowledge of our Delivery project. How?"

"I'm not sure, sir. I believe that the Elites informed him of it. How they found out, I don't know."

"This is not what I meant. He has knowledge of it now that he did not possess before. Observe." A recording played.

"_I was at Phobos. I fought the Flood, I personally destroyed the facility to prevent them spreading. I was one of three survivors. One was an ONI officer who immediately recruited me. The other was a single Flood spore, which was used to start the project over on Titan. Reach Station is going to be different. We've constructed a section specifically for the project. In the first sign of outbreak, it is hard-programmed to detach and start relaying a hostile IFF signal. Any nearby ships equipped with plasma weaponry, as well as this station itself, would vaporize it completely. Failing that, it would be on a collision course with the star. Foolproof."_ Xiong wasn't surprised that they'd recorded his conversation with Sheppard. Even as he'd spoken then, he realized that it would come back to take a chunk out of his posterior.

"This is not the only thing you told him, either. I'm sure you remember the rest of it, so I won't waste time reviewing the material with you." The shadow never wavered from its arrogant posture as it spoke. "Remember, Fleet Admiral, that your personal project only exists because I allow it to. You live because I allow you to. We know Sheppard directly opposes our operations, and we know he has enough power to do serious damage. Deal with Sheppard, and deal with Daniels, or your project and your life are forfeit. Understood?"

Xiong seethed. "Understood. Sir."

"Dismissed."

**~~O~~**

Reach Station was small compared to the bulk of the _Fist of Dorn_ hovering in orbit around Reach. It still possessed a dignified grandeur against its black-and-rust backdrop of the glassed planet below. More dignified still was the large dropship docking at the station. The side read HATC-H 143A in large bold letters, and in crudely-painted script below it, "Jerky." It set down in a cleared landing area and the back hatch opened, showing a huge figure in the darkened interior. He stepped into the light.

Fully armored, Combat Admiral Charles Tucker Daniels was just under eleven feet tall. Brilliant white and accented orange, the bulky-looking suit whirred slightly as he walked. He carried no weapons, though a large hilt was attached to the thigh plating and a pair of quad-fire missile pods rested on its massive shoulders. He still wore his helmet.

Sheppard greeted him with a smile and a nod, and almost extended his hand before he realized that the gauntlet could crush his bones in the grip of one finger, then shock him with an absurd voltage. Also present were Huntz and Leditzky, along with the Sangheili commander Zectoy.

They departed the bay and went to one of the myriad conference rooms on the station. Already there were the representatives from ONI, the United Nations, the Arbiter himself, and several branches of the UNSC. The circular table had been fitted with a chair for the Elites, but the planners were well aware that nothing they could build would hold up the bulk of the armor Daniels wore. It didn't matter to him anyway; he just locked the legs in place at the table.

After a nervous silence, Sheppard began. "We all know why we're here. The enemy, and that is what they are now, have directly struck against us at the Rift. Their intentions have been made clear, and now we must decide how to react." He gestured to Daniels. "Before we begin, I would like to introduce the man whose fleet was largely responsible for the defense of the Rift against the invaders, Combat Admiral Daniels. He himself has come through the Rift, and has a great amount of knowledge and intelligence that we will find invaluable." Daniels nodded his thanks and addressed the assembly directly.

"I will spare you the bulk of the details and be brief. I'm from a planet called Pavonis that humanity will one day colonize. It's near Harvest was, or in your case, is. The year is 41, 631. I am from your future, or a possibility of its outcome. The organization that currently runs in the background of the New Galactic Order is Asylum, the military of which I work for. I have at my disposal weapons that can obliterate planets in seconds and technologies that can restore those very worlds in a year. I have also researched and been to the galaxy that has chosen you as their newest target, and I have several thousand terabytes of data regarding it." Someone spoke as he finished, a representative of the UNSC's scientific division.

"Excuse me, sir, but that armor...I've seen something very similar to it before. Are you familiar with something called Warhammer 40K?" he asked nervously. Daniels sighed.

"Somehow, I knew I'd be asked about this. I'll make this quick as well. Warhammer 40K is a game created several hundred years ago (your time) by a prominent tabletop board games manufacturer. It spawned countless novels, games, spinoffs, and so on, but what no one realized until around the thirty-first millennium was that most of it was true; the design team that created the game was composed of a group of psykers who had seen a possibility of the future. While the specific details of characters, events, and places are entirely fictional, the basic plot points are not; the alien races all exist, humanity did go through several dark ages of technology, psykers are _very _dangerous, and the Warp does exist. In fact, those Flood specimens that attacked the Ambassador's vessel were tainted by the Warp, which is why they had strange properties.

Before you ask, the reason I'm wearing the Tau Commander's armor is because the Tau doesn't exist. Back when weapons design for Asylum began, the people running it thought it fitting to used technology similar to the game. It turned out to be quite effective. Also, humanity doesn't have to risk traveling through the Warp because of the development of Slipspace technologies." He looked back to the rest of the assembly. "Getting to the task at hand..."

Sheppard, Xiong, and Zectoy delivered their reports of what took place at the Rift. Sheppard then gave the account of what the Sith did to their ships using the Force, and the assembly was disconcerted by it. If the enemy wielded such powers, what else could they do? At this Daniels stepped forward again.

"The Force shouldn't be considered as some implacable tool or weapon. It's much more powerful, complicated, and threatening than some magic bullet. Given the proper preparations and focus devoted to the task, I've witnessed on more than one occasion entire fleets being hurled across a galaxy. Such acts require enormous sacrifice, but they're possible, and often far worse than simple displacement. I've also seen people, humans, their bodies twisted and corrupted by their use of the Force. The most twisted are often the most powerful. Where I'm from, we call those who are Force-sensitive Psykers. The Force is merely a mortal tapping into the energies of the Warp. On its own, ignorable, but when used, very dangerous.

"But, ways exist to counter the power. Certain materials and types of energy will dull, deflect, and outright end local manipulations of the Force. I myself am one such event; something called a Blank. Unlike almost all other living beings, I have no Force presence, and thus I and the space I inhabit is dead to it. Were I to come into contact with a Force user, they'd be driven mad. Asylum has managed to weaponize the 'Blank Field,' but the technology is still experimental and very, very rare."

"Thank you, Admiral. Would Asylum be willing to grant us the aid of this technology?" He was asked.

"They already have. The _Fist of Dorn_ and several other key vessels in my fleet are equipped with B-Type defensive systems."

"What we're asking is, would they allow the UNSC use of the technology?"

"No." There were frowns at this. "Perhaps I should have been more clear earlier. Asylum, and by extension, myself, are here to defend Earth and its colonies and hold back the forces of the other galaxy. We will not and cannot give you access to anything you don't already have. That is possibly the only thing I can say definitively about our operations here."

"Very well. Moving along, the next order of business is to discuss fleet and troop deployments. Admiral Daniels, I don't suppose we can consider you under any sort of chain of command here?"

"No."

**~~O~~**

In a grander auditorium an incalculable distance away, on Coruscant, Darth Titan stood on a raised platform surrounded by the leaders of the galaxy.

"Your actions were indescribably incautious and ultimately futile. We were told that the Sith agreed to work with the Republic, not behind its back." The speaker was a Master on the Jedi Council, Nathaniel Yar. "It raises questions of the Sith Alliance's motives in granting aid." He paused, and casually spread his hands over the screen in front of him which displayed the casualty report. "Care to explain how a fleet less than a quarter the size of your own, made up of primitive vessels, managed to repel you?" In truth, it was amusing to him. The Sith had mocked the Republic for not taking action, and then, in taking action, had lost almost everything. This one had, at any rate.

"I will admit that the defeat was total and embarrassing. However, the goal of my expedition was never to conquer in the first place. I was sent to gauge the enemy's strength and draw out any hidden resources they may have had. If they'd had none, I would have continued on to any world I could find, and then the next, and the next, unless they'd found a way to stop me."

"And they did. You still never said how."

"They didn't, actually. Just as I had them defeated and in rout, a fleet of around five hundred vessels arrived through the Rift behind my own. They had weapons powerful enough to destroy entire vessels in a single shot, and shields capable of withstanding our own firepower. They were led by a...man...named Daniels. You will know him by the name given to him by the locals of a sector here on Coruscant: the Solus Meg Ke'nu'cuyir." There were many confused looks. "13-B. Ancient history to some, but to the Sith, not so. He is a formidable opponent, and he commands an army to rival the ancient Mandalorians."

"The 13-B incident was during the Rebellion. That's ancient history!"

"He also appeared on Korriban just before your Purge destroyed it, Jedi. This man is not one to be underestimated." The council could see a heated argument brewing, and silenced them before it could come to that.

"What we need to do now," said the Chairman of the assembly loudly, "Is decide on the next course of action. How do we proceed with this new development in mind?"

"Strike now!" said Titan before anyone could interrupt him again. "Before they can consolidate, we should strike at their homeworld and demoralize them completely. We may end this before it gets too out of hand." There were shouts of agreement and dissent. Silence was called.

"We agree with the Sith." All eyes turned to the Jedi Council, who didn't quite seem to believe it themselves. They continued anyway. "The enemy is now a threat. If we want to end this war with minimal loss of life and resources, we should put out their fire at its source. Thanks to you," Nathaniel said pointedly to Titan, "Diplomacy is no longer an option. We should attack Reach."

_**End Part I**_

_**

* * *

**_That's it for Opening Salvo. Kind of a dry chapter, but then, it's all exposition. Some of it much-needed, I'll admit. If there are any questions at all, I'd be happy to answer them as long as they don't spoil the plot.

Solus Meg Ke'nu'cuyir, loosely translated from Mandalorian, means "One who does not exist." This is reference to the cloaking field in Daniels' armor during his operation on Coruscant; he was as a ghost to the locals.

The End Notes explain things further than could be easily explained in-story.

As always, criticism, comments, and useful tips are always welcome.


	6. Opening Salvo: End Notes

_**End Notes**_

There's not a whole lot to be said about _Opening Salvo_. Lots of foreshadowing and questions and such, but I'm hoping we've answered a lot of them as well. If not, feel free to ask.

I should probably start with that whole mess about Daniels. I knew from the beginning (that being the original version of the story written two years ago) that the UNSC as it is in Halo Canon would get their green-clad asses handed to them. I wanted to give them an ally or some sort of boon, and I immediately thought of Warhammer 40k. Then I realized that 40k would wreck the Star Wars universe and take the stage, so I had to find a balancing act.

Well, along comes this vague idea for a 40k-esque, post-Halo human civilization. From there I realized that there had to be a good reason for things to have ended up that way. This issue mulled for a while, and then a good friend of mine mentioned something about how scary it would be if the great science fiction writers of the world weren't writing fiction; they were seeing the future. That to me sounded like a great explanation, so I pitched it to Pein, and he liked it, so that's what we went with.

The basic idea is this: whatever crazed mind came up with Warhammer 40k and made it tick was a psyker seeing the future of humanity. So, along comes the year thirty-one thousand and suddenly Humanity finds out what's really out there in the dark. In order to combat these forces trying to oust them from existence, they develop new technologies and weapons. The genre-savvy people creating these new tools decide that they should be like the source material. For instance, at some point you'll see Daniels using a bolter-ish weapon.

Now, a 40k fan would be asking, "What happened to the Emperor and Horus and all of that business with the Warp?" My thought was that the creation of Slipspace technology would allow humanity to develop without needing to enter the Warp for travel, thereby reducing the influence of Chaos.

This leads me to what I'd said about the Force being related to the Warp. In this sense I wasn't saying that Jedi are psykers in danger of being possessed by Daemons. The idea is that the ability to use the Force is just one drawing on the energy of the Warp that pervades Realspace.

I've gotten questions about how exactly it was possible to have as many Sith as I mentioned in such a relatively short time. Well, we've taken several creative liberties with the events prior to and long after the Rebellion. That whole Only Two thing went out the window, as well as a few hundred years' history. However, we're hoping to make up for it with a decent story.

The next installment (Stories, I think I'll start calling them) is _Reach_. The Alliance (that's the Star Wars group) assault on what they believe to be the Terran homeworld will take at least three Stories to complete. The first will be mainly Halo point of view, the second Star Wars, and the third a mix. Before anyone starts getting ideas, this was planned long before the game Halo: Reach was even publicized, so it's not a seasonal thing.

After _Reach_, the only thing that can be said safely is that the Stories won't line up back-to-back anymore. There will probably be accounts of a battle in one Story, then the next will be about something that took place months before. Eventually we'll even write the histories of individual characters.

Also be on the lookout for the HvSW Technical Analysis. It's an out of context guide on non-canon tech, characters, and settings that we'll update as we write the Stories.

That's about it for now, unless someone asks another question we think should be added into this. As always, reviews, constructive criticisms, witticisms, personalized rating scales, and giant question marks are welcome.

Authors Anton Pein and Exterminatus Extremis of Asylum


End file.
